


A Beautiful Lie

by orphan_account



Category: Supernatural, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Croatoan Virus, Crossover, Demonic Possession, Demons, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-11
Updated: 2012-06-07
Packaged: 2017-11-03 11:07:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/380708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An uncontrollable threat is sweeping up the coast of America, and the Avengers' best attempts are amounting to almost nothing. It's definitely going to take some outside help to stop this, and no one in SHIELD is expecting it to come from two Midwestern boys and a biblical warrior.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

The back alleys of Muncie, Indiana aren’t the place one would normally find such a posh man, but there was nothing normal about tonight. The stranger (and he was surely a stranger, as no one in Muncie dressed quite _that_ well) had a meeting tonight, a meeting that was best held in the darkest corners of a small, desolate city.

After a short period of waiting, the stranger was approached by two other men. These men could have blended seamlessly into the citizens of the Muncie, just two more blue-collar workers in a town of thousands. Except for their eyes. Anyone who saw them at that moment would have noticed that their eyes were black. Entirely black. But there was no one else. That was kind of the point.

The meeting progressed slowly, at first. The posh man mostly just listened, the two other men speaking quietly but emphatically. But they weren’t doing well, as soon the posh man looked bored, and he made moves to go. The two men quickly restrained him, and they struggled. The man seemed to be winning at first, his fists a bright blue, and his blows leaving frozen patches of skin across his attackers.

But soon his attacks were being blocked, deflected, and the blue tint was leaving his skin. A thick black smoke enveloped his legs, moving up his body. The man’s attacks were weakening, his body slumping into the arms of the other two men. As his head fell forward, rolling against his chest, the black smoke moved up and poured into his mouth. The man’s body jerked, head thrown back violently as he screamed before he collapsed again.

The posh man stood clumsily, moving with the help of the others. He slowly stretched and walked about, arms extended above his head. Then he walked to the mouth of the alley, looking over the deserted streets of the city, and he smiled, mouth twisted into a chilling smirk. As he turned away, his eyes blinked from a bright green to a cold, dead white.


	2. The Beginning

SHEILD scientists were at a loss. They had run every exam, every blood test, every scan that existed, but they still couldn’t explain what was happening. The Avengers, and the rest of the SHEILD field agents, were run entirely ragged, constantly working to get ahead of this disaster. Fury and Coulson were still holding out for a cure, or treatment of some kind, but it didn’t seem to be much of an option any more. They just couldn’t explain what was causing normal people to become rage-fueled, super-powerful psycho killers.

Tony and Thor were on scout duty, being the only two Avenger’s able to fly. They spent almost entire days in the air, covering as much ground as possible to pull survivors out of danger. The disease had hit almost the entire West Coast, starting somewhere in North Cali and working its way out from there. Before anyone realized what was going on, whole towns had become bloodthirsty armies, moving out and infecting more. People that weren’t infected were killed; except for a few lucky who managed to hole themselves up somewhere, keeping their attackers at bay until help could arrive.

That was what Tony and Thor were doing. They operated from the helicarrier, pulling survivors out from the air and handing them off to SHIELD helicopters, which would take them to safe bases and instillations. That was really only the safe way to help. The infection spread by ingestion or inhalation of blood from carriers, so fighting was dangerous unless you were hermetically sealed and packaged in an indestructible container. Even Tony’s Iron Man suit wasn’t quite up to that.

So that left no choice but to have Tony and Thor fly around, picking people up and bringing them to safety. It wasn’t a fun or easy job. Being in the air for so long was exhausting, even for Tony in his suit. And survivors weren’t easy to find even with JARVIS scanning satellites for them, especially if people were hiding inside. The worst thing, though, was the day that the two Avengers had to leave a man behind. After days of flying, Tony and Thor couldn’t carry the man, his wife, and their three children at once.

The man had insisted that they take his family, to come back for him as soon as they could. But the helicopters had fallen behind, and it would take almost 15 minutes before either Thor or Tony could make it back. Tony got there first, and he handed off the two kids he was carrying as quickly as he could. Tony had JARVIS pump all the power he could into the repulsors, flying back at break-neck speed. As he neared the roof, where they had left the man, Tony could see he was cutting it close, very close. By both his and JARVIS’s hurried calculations, there was only going to be one shot of getting him, a fly-by grab at full speed that was almost as dangerous as fighting.

Tony lined himself up for the shot, arms outstretched to make the grab and then stabilize their flight. The man saw Tony coming, and he was fighting harder, working to clear some of the psychos off so that they could make a cleaner escape. Tony was speeding above the mob, now, just out of reach, and at the last moment, he dipped down, one arm wrapping around the man’s chest, the other facing downwards, to push them both up.

Suddenly, one of the killers had his arm, and the two men were pulled down, falling into dangerous mob. Tony immediately shot up, managing to knock away his attackers. But he had lost his grip on the survivor, and while Tony tried to reach him, the man was ripped apart savagely, his screams soon cut off in the most violent manner.

Tony collapsed inside his suit, JARVIS taking over the controls to keep him aloft. A moment later, Thor was at his side, sad faced and exhausted. The Thunder God wrapped his arms around Tony, taking the weight of both suit and man, and he carried the grieving Iron Man back to the helicarrier. They left Natasha to tell his family as Tony and Thor collapsed onto the floor of the Avenger’s living quarters, near comatose from fatigue and depression.


	3. Forests of Green and Men of Iron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We need to help him, Dean”.
> 
> “Yeah, yeah. Alright, don't get your antlers in a twist”.

Over the next few days, Tony noticed that survivors were becoming less frequent. A week into this plague, and they spent their first day without making any rescues. Fury ordered the copters to spread out farther, widening their searches, but there was still nothing. Tony hated it.

SHEILD ground units had set up a quarantine area around the West Coast, entirely sealing off Washington, Oregon, California, and large parts of their neighboring states. They had managed to erect walls in just under three days, with ships and copters monitoring the coast.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, Fury was still holding out for survivors. He had ordered that the Avengers would make one entire pass over the quarantine zone, than they were to clear out. Fury and Coulson hadn’t said anything, but Tony was pretty sure that area was going to get a dose of heavy artillery.  It was too soon to give up, in Tony’s opinion (they were still people, goddammit), but he also understood how dangerous it was too have such a large number of infected roaming around. Especially when the infected were so vicious.

It had been two weeks since patient zero, and they had just finished their pass over California. They were heading up farther North, now, and Tony didn’t like the area. The dense tree cover made searching slow and imperfect. Some areas, he had to fly lower than was comfortable, exposing himself to attacks from the tree-tops. In other areas, it was impossible to search from the air, and Tony had to give up anyone hiding there for lost, as Fury had forbidden anyone from touching ground in the quarantine zone.

It was one of the denser areas of forest, and Tony was hovering just above the trees, looking for any hints of survivors as he waited for instructions from the helicarrier. There was a small thinned area in the forest canopy just in front of him, so Tony moved forward, listening to JARVIS relay coordinates for the next block in the search grid. The view through the branches wasn’t the best, but a few well-place repulsor blasts had given him a decent view of the forest floor. It didn’t look like there had been any recent activity.

Then there was movement on the forest floor, and Tony was ready, muscles tensed for an attack while JARVIS prepared to alert SHEILD. Tony began to charge the repulsors, waiting for a target. He got one as a young boy pushed through the tree cover, chased by three infected.

Tony snapped at Fury to send help as JARVIS fed data back to the helicarrier. Tony broke through the tree cover, firing off shots at the infected, knocking one out immediately. Tony managed to knock another one off it’s (it, don’t think of them as people) feet and into a tree. The last one was quickly closing the distance to the kid. The trees were too close to really give chase, so Tony hurridly charged his chest repulsor, aiming the blast off to the side. He didn’t want to hit the kid.

The blast from his repulsor took out a few trees, knocking them into the infected thing (not woman, thing), and pinning it. With the three threats taken care of, Tony chased after the boy, who was still running. He had to dodge the trees, which was making flying quite difficult, but he caught up eventually, hovering a few feet in front of the kid.

“Hey, kid, kid… Calm down, I’m here to help you. I can get you out of here, take you somewhere safe”. Tony waited, watching as the boy slowly moved towards him. Tony had landed and removed his helmet, and he was kneeling, trying his best to look inviting and non-threatening in his suit (not an easy task). Tony held perfectly still as the boy got within arm’s length, letting the kid come to him. Tony smiled as the boy wrapped his arms around his neck, holding tightly. Tony started to stand.

But then his head was snapped back, slamming hard into the trunk of a tree, pain spiking in his skull. The attack continued, dazing him, as Tony tried to move, to fight back. His vision was filled with black spots, but he could see the kid leaning over him. But something was wrong; the kid’s eyes looked black and he was smiling, laughing actually.

Then Tony realized one of the infected was there too, but the kid was holding it, keeping it subdued. And where _the hell_ did a kid get a knife that wicked looking. A knife that was stuck into the throat of the infected, causing blood to pour across his neck and face. Some instinct of self-preservation had caused Tony to squeeze his eyes and mouth shut, keeping the blood out, but he felt a small hand pressing at the hinges of his jaw, trying to force his mouth open.

Tony was fighting the kid, fighting the growing concussion threatening his brain, and fighting his need to breathe. The grip on his jaw was getting harder, surely bruising now, and Tony was having trouble staying conscious, staying awake to fight. But then there was a loud bang and a hissing scream, and the pressure on his jaw relaxed before tightening again, even more painful than before.

Tony’s head was lifted, then slammed harshly down into the ground as another loud bang echoes through the trees, and Tony drifted into the dark as shouting voices came close.

He dreamed of his lover’s green eyes.

 

The two men stood looking down at the abused superhero, debating what to do. The demon had run off, and the shorter of the men wanted to chase it. The tall one, though, had realized that the superhero was still alive, and it didn’t look like he had gotten any blood in his system.

“We need to help him, Dean”.

“Yeah, yeah. Alright, don't get your antlers in a twist”.


	4. Chance Encounters of the Best Kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is in a cave, his head hurts, and some weird guy with abnormally blue eyes is staring.
> 
> Seriously, this is not his day.

Tony’s head was throbbing, and his body felt stiff and tense inside his suit. His head was lying on some kind of cushion, though, and the dim, even lighting filtering through his eyelids meant he wasn’t on the forest floor anymore. Thor and SHEILD had probably caught up with him then dragged him back to the helicarrier.

  
Hearing movement some distance away from him, Tony shifted slightly in his suit, then opened his eyes.

  
And stared in disbelief, alarm and mild confusion.

  
He wasn’t in the medical bay, he wasn’t even on the helicarrier. Tony was lying on his back in a cave, and the movement he heard was two men moving around at the entrance of the cave. There was a third man, though, and he was the target of Tony’s most confused and alarmed glare.

  
This man had dark hair above of deep blue eyes and a very serious mouth. He was in a disheveled white shirt with a blue tie hanging loosely off his neck. The man was sitting on a small rock next to Tony’s head, watching Tony without blinking. It was extremely unsettling, like the man was staring through him more than at him.

  
“I was told to watch you diligently”. Blue-eyes was speaking, and Tony was reminded of the way Loki had spoken on first arriving to Midgard (Thor still talked like an Asguardian prince), the stiff pronunciation and formal speech patterns that weren’t found on Earth.

  
“Oh, fuck, not another one”, Tony sighed, rolling his eyes back into his head. Blue-eyes looked confused, tilting his head to the side like a lost puppy (Tony was suddenly filled with the desire to scratch behind his ear and say ‘Good boy’). Tony ignored Blue-eyes, focusing instead on his suit, bending and flexing different limbs to make sure that everything was working properly.

  
Satisfied with his suit’s functionality, Tony sat up, the suit’s hydraulics making the task a bit easier. Tony tried to call up JARVIS then, but when he didn’t get a response, Tony realized he was off the grid for the first time in a long while. And the last time was not exactly pleasant. Tony quickly busied himself with trying to repair the communication systems, distracting himself from flashbacks of a cave, car batteries, and death.

  
“I see you’re awake now, Mr. Stark”. Tony looked up at his name, watching as one of the other men joined him and Blue-eyes further back in the cave. The new guy, a freakishly tall boy with brown hair hanging in his eyes and a soft smile, nodded to Blue-eyes, who nodded back, then moved to sit extremely close to the third man. Tall-One sat down on Blue-eyes’ rock, smiling gently at Tony, who didn’t say a word.

  
“It’s good to see you came out okay. We were worried that you might have been infected at first, but you came out fine. Well, except for the concussion”. Tall-One talked happily, obviously wanting to put Tony at ease in these strange circumstances. “My name is Sam. The two over there are Cas, who was sitting with you before, and my brother, Dean”. Tall-One Sam was watching Tony like he was some kind of idol, which made sense. His face was plastered practically everywhere and his name was on almost everything, so he probably was like an idol to the average American citizen.

  
“I would introduce myself, but you already know who I am. So I guess that just leaves thanking you and your merry band of life-savers.” Tony paused, matching Sam’s smile with a crooked smirk of his own. “What was up with that kid anyway? I’ve never seen an infected act so… intelligently”.

  
“You’re right, most Croats don’t act that way.” Sam stopped, hesitating, and looked over at the two other men. They were watching Tony and Sam with a cautious intensity that unsettled him. Then Sam and his brother looked at each other, and they must have reached some sort unspoken agreement, because then Sam was turning back to Tony, speaking seriously.

  
“You might have some trouble believing this, Mr. Stark, but you’ll have to trust that we know what we’re doing”. Sam looked like a little boy with a secret for his dad, so convinced that what he was about to reveal was earth-shattering. Tony wanted to pat hi head and indulge him, or to scoff and snark. He settled for cocking an eyebrow and waiting silently.

  
“That boy… he was possessed. By a demon”.

  
Tony blinked.

  
“Alright”, Tony said, going back to fiddling with the systems of his suit. He wasn’t sure how long he had been unconscious, but if they couldn’t locate Tony, they might just give him up for dead or infected. He needed to get ahold of SHEILD and call for an evacuation team so that he and the other three men could all escape. Hopefully before Fury leveled the quarantine zone. “Did you kill it?”

  
There was silence for a good few minutes before Tony looked up from his work, noting the chorus of strange looks he was getting all around. He looked around confused for a moment. He just wanted to know if the demon was still going to be a problem. Tony repeated himself, “The demon, did you kill it or stop it or something, or will it be back?”

  
“Umm….” Sam started before he seemed to snap back, though he still looked a little confused. “We didn’t kill it, no. It escaped from the boy and is probably finding another person to possess. If it is targeting you specifically, Mr. Stark, than it will probably be back”.

  
As Tony nodded his understanding, Sam went back to looking confused, speaking earnestly to Tony. “You know, you’re taking this whole ‘attacked by a demon’ thing really well…”

  
“Oh well, it’s hardly the weirdest thing I’ve come across.” Tony said, turning his thoughts to all the weird shit he had dealt with in the past. “No, demons don’t even break the top ten. Comes with being a superhero I guess”. Tony flashed a smile at Sam, laughing in his head. So his reaction hadn’t been a normal one, but then again, he was Tony Stark. He was far beyond normal.

  
Then Tony must have done something right, because his communication systems hiccupped back to life, crackling with a jarring static that made them all jump a little. Steve’s voice cut through noise.

  
“Tony! Tony, please tell me that’s actually you!”

  
“Calm down, Captain Worry-wart, I’m fine”, Tony laughed, secretly relieved he managed to contact anyone. He would rather be talking to Loki, but Steve was his friend, and any familiar voice would do. “Can you guys get a lock on my position? I have some survivors that need picked up along with me”.

  
“Natasha says they’re already working on it”, Steve hesitated, then spoke again, but more quietly. “Tony, you’ve been off the radar for almost two whole days.”

  
“Calm down Cap, I got in a bit of a scuffle, but I’m fine. “

  
“No Tony! It isn’t fine. We were-“, Steve seemed to choke on his words, cutting himself off. Tony was quiet. He could feel that something was not right. Steve started speaking, but even quieter, and sounding very distressed. “We thought you were dead, Tony. We were… we were going to leave. Leave and let the planes come in and. .. and…”

  
Tony listened as Steve let the sentence hang there, knowing exactly how it was going to end. He saw Sam, Dean and Cas moving around the cave, but he ignored them in favor of Steve, waiting for the hero’s voice to come back on the line and tell him that they were on their way. Natasha spoke instead.

  
“We have a fix on your location, Tony. ETA for Thor and Chopper 2089E is 5 minutes. Be ready for EVAC”.

  
The feed broke off, and the cave was silent. Tony stood, stretching out in his suit. His helmet wasn’t in the cave, probably still where he had been attacked. It wasn’t a major loss, as the helmet was one of the easier pieces in the suit to construct.

  
His three rescuers were waiting at the mouth of the cave, all looking back at him. Sam was giving him a small smile; Cas still giving him a solemn stare that made Tony think he wasn’t quite normal, and Dean… Dean actually looked pissed at him. Tony ignored it. It wouldn’t be the first time people were mad at him for no reason. Instead, he brought out his best shit-eating grin and walked to join them.

  
“Well boys, are you ready to blow this hell hole!”


	5. A Coping Mechanism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Then Tony heard Bruce hiss, and his head snapped up, concussion pushed to the back of his thoughts. The scientist was at the window of the conference room, staring out with both anger and sadness warring on his face. The rest of the team watched him warily, but Bruce seemed to have a good hold on himself. He turned to the team, eyes dark and face taunt.
> 
> “It’s started”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify, the huge italicized bits are flashbacks.

Tony’s head was pressed into his arms, trying to think of what the hell he had done to deserve this, forced to suffer through another meeting with a concussion and no pain killers. Even Mother Steve said he had to go. It was probably revenge for that time with the Loki clones in the kitchen. Steve really should have known that moans in the middle of the night are _not_ something to be investigated. Tony smiled at the thought of a repeat performance when this mess was over.

There was lots of yelling in this meeting, which only lent itself to Tony’s headache. It seems the boys who had saved his life were wanted criminals, killers, in fact, according to the United States government. No wonder they had been so resistant to Thor and his rescue squad. Tony had thought they just weren’t too keen on being carried around like children.

Now the three wanted to leave; Steve was torn between thanking them for Tony’s life and enforcing justice; Bruce and Natasha wanted to interrogate them about the demon; Thor said “They carried not hearts of murder”; and Clint just wanted them to be someone else’s problem. Tony would have been happy to just sleep (curled up in silk sheets, lithe arms around his waist, a cool hand resting possessively across the heat of his arc reactor).

Tony focused back on the meeting. It was a safer place for his thoughts.

Fury was mysteriously absent from the proceedings, having departed as soon as he finished questioning Tony. Normally Tony would be ecstatic, but now, with the possibility of a mass execution, it was ominous in a way that set Tony’s teeth on edge. Fury was a manipulative bastard who played to win, regardless of consequences. But that didn’t mean he was always in the wrong. And Tony hated it.

Then Tony heard Bruce hiss, and his head snapped up, concussion pushed to the back of his thoughts. The scientist was at the window of the conference room, staring out with both anger and sadness warring on his face. The rest of the team watched him warily, but Bruce seemed to have a good hold on himself. He turned to the team, eyes dark and face taunt.

“It’s started”.

\-----

Tony didn’t stay to watch the fireworks. Thor and Steve did, along with Clint and Natasha. The four of them seemed to be holding some kind of silent vigil at the window, Thor singing lowly along in what Tony assumed was Norse. Bruce had buried himself deep in his lab, far away from the sounds of distant explosions and mass murder.

Tony tried that for a bit, working on repairs to his suit for a couple hours, but soon he couldn’t concentrate, and left the rest up to JARVIS to do. He settled back into his quarters instead, blaring loud rock songs as he settled into a dark blue chair. He rustled around restlessly, fidgeting and drumming his fingers along the armrest. These rooms were designed for two, and they felt far too empty with his other half missing.

He looked around longingly, eyes settling on the not-so-small liquor cabinet that was so very tempting right now. A bottle or two of vodka had proved to work in the past when he needed to chase out voices of the dead and dying. But even as he looked now, he could see the faint green glow along the edges, indicative of the magic Loki had cast after his first proposal attempt. Any attempts he made to get to his alcohol would lead to an instant hangover without any of the fun beforehand. Sometimes he hated that spell, but he knew, he could say now, that he needed it then.

\-----

_Loki had been swept back to Asgard by Thor again, time for another Royal Family Therapy Session or something. He was slated to be gone an entire month this time (something about taking on more duties as the Prodigal Prince or whatever). Tony was doing well for the first three weeks, content to just build things and bother Bruce and make Steve blush like a prepubescent girl. But at the very start of that last week, the whole team got called out for a Hydra attack on Seattle._

_The fight had started pretty routinely, bombs going off, with Bruce off Hulk-smashing some poorly designed robots somewhere, Natasha and Clint covering him. That left Tony and Steve to tag team it, and they slid into familiar routine, Tony drawing the Hydra goon’s fire and Steve evacuating the civilians. But Hydra had decided to bring out some new toys to play with, and Tony was taking the hits hard. He was slowly being pummeled back to where Steve was evacuating, and so he pushed the suit into overdrive and struck back with everything he could._

_Hydra hit back harder._

_Tony could hear the people screaming as he crash-landed amongst the various EVAC vehicles. His display was flickering wildly, and the suit was responding slowly to his movements, but he scrambled as quickly as he could back up, shooting off a few blasts from his repulsors. Steve was immediately at his side, waving that damn shield about and being all heroic._

_There was another explosion then, right at their feet, and Tony was thrown backwards, his display glitching and the suit locking up. Just before he view went black, Tony saw Steve tossed into a truck, suit blackened and torn, body bleeding and limp. Then he was forced to lie there, with only two thin lines of sky visible._

_The battle was over by the time Tony had gotten his shit back together. Clint and Natasha had found the chink in Hydra’s armor and had exploited it until the crazy bastards had pulled back. Tony flipped his face-mask back, looking around desperately for Steve, calling out on the comms for any information. Clint reported back that the Super Soldier was already being rushed back to the Medical Unit, but there was no one could tell him Steve’s injuries or status._

_Tony found out later that the blast had left Steve with three broken ribs, a fractured skull, third degree burns on 65% of his body, and multiple points of internal trauma and bleeding. Nothing too serious for the man with super-healing abilities, but Tony was a wreck. This was his friend, his teammate, and he didn’t like this, didn’t like feeling responsible. But he did feel responsible, he felt guilty despite what everyone told him, even Steve, when he eventually woke._

_But Tony didn’t really remember that, having drunk himself into a stupor almost immediately and remaining that way for the rest of the week._

_Loki found him like that, locked up tight and drunk off his ass in (at that time) Tony’s rooms. He had patiently cleaned the genius up, listening patiently to Tony’s drunken and guilty ramblings, gently cradling Tony as he choked on worried sobs. Loki had taken it in stride when Tony had proposed, stumbling around to find a screen where he could design and order a proper ring. The god had laughed quietly, telling him to try again when he was sober, and then gotten Tony to bed, holding him through the night and pressing cool lips to his forehead until he slipped into an uneasy sleep._

_Then Loki had magically locked up all the hard liquor and let Tony suffer through the two day long hangover that followed his drinking binge._


	6. Tell Me Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel’s face was drawn and pinched, his brows scrunched up tightly as if he had a bad migraine. His whole body looked smaller, crumpled in like a partially deflated balloon. And he was just pale and trembling all over, slight tremors in his hands and a noticeable limp.

Tony snapped up out of the chair, pacing around the room with a sudden worried ferocity. He couldn’t stand to stay in the familiar chambers anymore, practically bursting out the door and stalking down random hallways. He was locked up in his own head, in his own memories, and while they were mostly happy ones, they contrasted too sharply with his current situation for his comfort.

He eventually found himself near the holding cells, and he decided to slip in and pay their guests a visit, having nothing much else to do.

Only two of the three men were in the cell. The odd one, Castiel, was missing. Tony dismissed this; the guy was unnerving anyway with that _stare_.  He was probably being interrogated by one of Fury's goons. That left Tony with just Sam and Dean for company, though the latter was about as pleasant as ever.

Sam looked pleased to see him at least, smiling up at Tony through the glass walls.

"Mr. Stark, it’s good to see you looking better already".

"Yeah, well it’s going to take more than one little demon to take me out of the game", Tony replied flippantly. He settled back against the wall, leaning into the cold metal and cocking an eyebrow at the boys. "And it’s Tony, please".

“Tony, then”. That seemed to brighten Sam’s mood at least, a crooked smile on his face as he spoke. Dean just rolled his eyes and snorted quietly.

“So then, boys… It would seem you have gotten yourselves into quite a bit of trouble”. Tony threw the words out as if they were irrelevant, but he was deeply intrigued. He was finding it hard to see Sam as the hardened, murderous and deranged criminal that his police record would indicate. Dean…. Well Dean was exactly friendly.

Sam was looking away, ashamed or maybe embarrassed, but when he started to speak, Dean cut him off.

"We did what we had to. Now make yourself useful and bust us out of here. And give back Cas, too, while you're at it". Sam looked sharply at his brother, but Tony just tilted his head, curious as to why the anger and animosity was directed at him. Sam sighed and turned back to Tony.

"He means that those ‘murders’ were actually hunts. We were trying to protect innocents. And if that means killing the monsters, then that’s what we do". Sam was practically pleading, defending he and his brother against Tony’s judgment. It was a bit cute in a total hero—worship kind of way.

Tony nodded casually, mentally noting to ask about other monsters later. It made sense to him, though, that a group of demon hunters would come into conflict with the law sooner or later. And it wasn’t like Tony himself had a completely clean record. Or Bruce for that matter. And no one will ever know how many crimes Natasha had committed (you don’t ask if you value life).

There was a soft hiss off to Tony’s side, and he turned to see the doors sliding open, several guards escorting in Castiel. Dean was on his feet instantly, eyes only on Castiel and hands pressed to the glass, Sam standing at his shoulder. The guards marched Castiel right past Tony, and he was shocked to see how different the stoic man looked. Like utter shit, really.

Castiel’s face was drawn and pinched, his brows scrunched up tightly as if he had a bad migraine. His whole body looked smaller, crumpled in like a partially deflated balloon. And he was just pale and trembling all over, slight tremors in his hands and a noticeable limp.

Tony stood as Castiel stepped (more like fell) into the cell, quickly caught by Dean, who was flashing big, green worried eyes around like he was in a Japanese cartoon (not that Tony had _willingly_ watched anime, it’s just that Thor enjoys company when he ‘experiences all Midgard has to offer up to him’, and Tony gets to fill that position when Loki isn’t around).

But those anime eyes quickly turned dark with anger, and as Sam took over Castiel-helping duty, Dean slammed his fists into the glass, yelling loudly at Tony.

“What did you do to him? Tell me what you did!”. Dean was really pummeling the glass, but he was no large rage-monster, and the blows just made dull thuds. Tony walked forward, ignoring Dean’s outburst for now, and side-stepped around the exiting guards to look closely at Castiel through the glass.

Tony wanted to ask Castiel what had happened himself, but he didn’t think the man would answer, assuming he could hear Tony over Dean’s bitch fit. He didn’t often visit SHEILD’s prisoners, but even so, he had never actually seen any signs of torture going on. But it didn’t matter because Tony’s favorite person then decided to join in the fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is short.  
> Really short.  
> But I'm too tired to finish what was going to be the rest of the chapter.  
> You'll get it tomorrow or the day after.


End file.
